RAID enclosure recommendations
 

Hail Citizens!

I am in search of an affordable RAID enclosure.
I want 6 bays and the ability to support 250 GB HDs.
I will be using RAID level 5 but almost any enclosure will support that.

What are the kids using these days?
Any suggestions?
-GH

This is more than a little bit of overkill for your needs, but here's what we've pretty much always used at work, and I'll swear by this product:

Modular Smart Array 30 Enclosure Family

A quick look around HP's website shows that they do make versions of this enclosure which are only 10 drives, and they also make SATA versions. Are you okay with using U320 SCSI, or are you limited to IDE?

I am loving the Apple XServe RAID

http://www.apple.com/xserve/raid/

14 SATA drive bays supporting up to 5.6TB. 2Gig Fiber Channel.
Before anyone asks, yes it works with Linux and Windows too.

Cheap RAID array

I know that is not what you are looking for, but I figured it could give you an idea for a DIY solution. It may also help anyone else that wondered in here looking for an affordable RAID solution. I would love to build my own array, but I don't have the money or a purpose for it.

Haha, I looked at doing that, but realized I didnt need to put that much heat into the house. Heck, in addition to the power that thing would draw, the AC would have to ramp up to counteract the heat, and my power bill would be through the roof. Figured I'd do better to buy a couple 250 gig drives.

Similar situation at my home. I can still have wet dreams about RAID enclosures but these damn boxes mean I'm first on the block to pay for AC. :( So I limit my home arrays to four drives. Fairly efficient RAID 5 utilization and it fits in skanky old mid-towers with the serving OS (still <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/">fbsd</a>). If I run out of space, it's time to think about the next iteration. Honestly, I've run two at a time for a couple years: One for media that powers up on demand and another for everything else that's always up.

Now with everything on Gb enet I'm considering expanding the main server RAID (cutting other boxes to single drives) and burying the thing in my house's crawlspace. Moving the heat & noise of 15+ drives, as many fans, and the AC seems to make sense if I can keep out the creepy crawleys.

Pay no attention to the strange sounds emanating from beneath that house. A geek dwells therein.

I thought the same thing you did. I was getting all excited over the possibility of having a RAID that big, but then I relized how much it would cost, and descided it wasn't worth it. Since I'm upgrading to gigabit for the faster file transfers, I'm thinking I should build a RAID array for my file server. 4 160 GB HDD in RAID 5 seems sufficient (spelling?).

Back from the dead...

If anyone has tried these drive systems pipe in.

Storcase (Kingston) has what looks to be reasonable low/midrange drive chassis. For SOHO I'm gravitating toward what fits in a tower. They also make standalone versions but these fit four 3.5" swap bays in the space of three 5.25" bays. Others exist that fit 5 in the same space (sideways) but I'm not as happy with the construction.

<img src="http://www.electronicsoutfitter.com/images/items/s21j110.jpg">
http://www.storecase.com/dataexpress/de400.asp

$302 from discounter (w/carriers). Hot-swap (soft-start) safe for both SATA and PATA. High duty-cycle carriers. Cableless carrier->drive connection. Each bay accepts SATA or PATA carriers - connection to host is all SATA. Steel & aluminum construction. Carriers are compatible with their 12-bay InfoStation enclosure system. Single 8cm fan in back. Free 24/7 support and 7yr warranty, 3yr on fans.

------ and ------

<img src="http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/cooldrives/RJR400-rack.jpg">

http://www.storecase.com/rhinojr/rjr400.asp

Inexpensive. I'm paying $108(!) w/carriers from discounter. ($140 from cooldrives.com) Same idea as de400 but carrier mating doesn't look as precise or durable. Not for daily drive changes. Only accepts SATA drives. Hot swap safe. SATA host connections and power on backplane. Aluminum w/plastic face & back. Single 8cm fan at back. 2yr warranty & free 24/7 tech support.

I'm sure the rjr400 is less capable (I've seen it with import labels) but I feel much better having Kingston behind it even if it isn't their design.

Oh, this is all SATA 1.5G.

I'm tempted to try two of these for a six drive setup in four 5.25" bays. Six has always been my magic number for small business servers, but cost objections usually put on the brakes:
<img src="http://store1.yimg.com/I/cooldrives_1856_812557">

The drive type would help :)

I haven't tried either of those enclosures, but I included the second one in my specs for a new fileserver I want to build in a few months. Seems like a much tidier way to house a large number of drives than just slapping them into a full-tower chassis.